OTTAWA - Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads to Russia next week hoping to talk about the economy but fully expecting the ongoing crisis in Syria could dominate the annual meeting of G20 leaders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Harper and the leaders of the world's 20 largest national economies beginning Thursday in Putin's hometown of St. Petersburg.

Even without the Syrian crisis, the meeting was shaping up to be a frosty one. Russia-Canada relations have chilled after a Canadian naval officer was found to have been spying for Moscow. Russia-U.S. relations cooled after Putin gave NSA secrets leaker Edward Snowden a place to hide from U.S. authorities.

And relations between most of the West, including Canada, and Putin chilled after Putin's government passed harsh anti-gay laws just in time for the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi.

But those are issues certain to come up as leaders bump into each other in the siderooms and backrooms of the grand 18th century Constantine Palace that used to be the home of Peter the Great and is now part of a showpiece congress complex that will house the G20.

The official G20 agenda, however, is likely to be focused on the economy.

"The world is looking to the G20 to lay the framework necessary for sustainable global economic growth and job creation," Harper said. "Canada hopes that this year's summit will result in commitments to further action on key issues such as financial regulation and trade liberalization."

The G20 group of nations together accounts for 85% of the world's economic activity and two-thirds of the world's population.